my controversial opinion on ocip

many Singaporean companies, organisations and social enterprises organises service learning trips for individuals of different age groups and from different walks of life.

recently, i went with my hall to Lao and i had an eye opening experience there.

firstly, many of the activities we organise/ things we plan to help them build (bookshelves, shoerack, painting etc), honestly the villagers or locals there can do it better and faster than us. i did painting there with my group and we did indeed help them paint, but we made a mess of the ground there. the locals also joined in and we realised that they prioritised efficiency over quality.

additionally, we planned to help them build book shelves with wood materials there, but the locals there could work one up so so much faster than us and it ended up with them doing more work than us.

it got me thinking do the locals there actually need our help? because they seemed pretty content with what they have.

on top of that, by travelling to the place with our personal growth and learning in mind, it felt to me that we would indeed achieve our objective, at the cost of inconveniencing the locals there.

anyway, these are just my small food for thought. maybe next time before going for such trips, we should think more deeply about what exactly we can do to help the people there in the ways that we can and in areas that they need

#bereal

#RealTalk #GirlTalk #Lemon8SG